The quickest F1 car ever built

[Chaos]

Hi all. I am a long time "lurker" on this forum but I've been wanting to ask this question for a long time now :

How quick would the "ultimate" F1 car be around a circuit like Silverstone ? The fastest lap was around 1 min 30 seconds for this years GP.

The " ultimate" F1 car would be hypothetically built disregarding all the rules that have been put in place to slow the cars down, over time.

So, the car would have :
. Unlimited power and engine size.
. Unlimited fuel - methanol etc
. Active suspension
. Unlimited aeros - movable wings, DRS etc
. Blown diffuser
. Unlimited tyres - super soft, width unlimited
. Unlimited brakes - mutli disks with exotic materials
. No weight restrictions
. Add in all the other innovations that teams have come up in the past, and yo have an " ultimate" F1 car.

What time do the boffins out there think this car could do on the Silverstone track ?

[neilbah]

it would then surely become driver limited, ie their ability to sustain G or react. A 1 minute to 1m10s lap may be possible but i dont think the driver would like to do another.

[WaikeCU]

Drivers would surely undergo more advanced training. Training that fighter jet pilots do, but adapted to driving and NASA developed training programs to be able to adapt to behaviour of such cars.

[SectorOne]

Eventually you will hit a ceiling for what a human being can handle. Then even if that was no problem you would run into the problem where the driver´s brain is too slow for the car itself.

[matt21]

Williams did simuöations with an "no rules" car.
They managed the lap in Silverstone in 1.06 min.

[FW17]

Williams did simuöations with an "no rules" car.
They managed the lap in Silverstone in 1.06 min.

Against 1m 18s at the bridge circuit not the arena loop.

[Just_a_fan]

Eventually you will hit a ceiling for what a human being can handle. Then even if that was no problem you would run into the problem where the driver´s brain is too slow for the car itself.

The tyres govern the absolute performance of a car. I think we'd find the tyres gave up before the driver did.

[WaikeCU]

Eventually you will hit a ceiling for what a human being can handle. Then even if that was no problem you would run into the problem where the driver´s brain is too slow for the car itself.

The tyres govern the absolute performance of a car. I think we'd find the tyres gave up before the driver did.

I don't think it would with active camber. Without active camber, downforce will force the tires off the rim, but with active camber it won't.

[porkpower]

LONG TIME lurker here, too!

If the premise is "no rules", why would you need a driver at all? Wouldn't it make more sense to have a programmable AI "drive" the car? That eliminates any need for G force resistance and I am sure that kind of technology exists.

Without the need for a driver, I think we can crack the 1 minute barrier easily.

[Webber2011]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_X2010

[Phil]

Theoretically, if we assume a no limits vehicle, the only limit being the driver and his ability to cope with massive G-forces, I think it would actually be doable to calculate a theoretical laptime. Basically, we would need to get a drawing of the lap and its corners and then we could calculate the what speeds you'd be doing around each and every corner to achieve what a human is theoretically capable of (+10G?). Then convert that into m/sec, add the straights (with theoretically acceleration and breaking - again, assuming maximum theoretical values and at the end, we might be able to come up with some form of lap time. Probably would be easier to calculate it from that angle than figure out how much ability a maximum performance vehicle would have and then convert that into a theoretical laptime.

[Just_a_fan]

Eventually you will hit a ceiling for what a human being can handle. Then even if that was no problem you would run into the problem where the driver´s brain is too slow for the car itself.

The tyres govern the absolute performance of a car. I think we'd find the tyres gave up before the driver did.

I don't think it would with active camber. Without active camber, downforce will force the tires off the rim, but with active camber it won't.

The point being that tyre grip doesn't increase linearly with increasing downforce. You can't just keep adding downforce and expect the tyre to keep increasing the grip it provides. At some point it will suffer either a mechanical or chemical inability to provide increased grip.

[Just_a_fan]

what speeds you'd be doing around each and every corner to achieve what a human is theoretically capable of (+10G?).

You'd need to find the limits for lateral "g" capacity. Most quoted limits are either for vertical-equivalent loads e.g. fighter aircraft "banking and yanking" or for in extremis peak loads e.g. a crash.

[machin]

Below is a simulated speed trace for the Silverstone GP circuit for a car with the following parameters:-

650kg total weight (car+driver+1 lap fuel)
Engine Power: 2000 bhp
Cd.A = 1.05m^2

The cornering G's for each corner has been set at 10G (whether or not this is humanly possible I will leave to others to decide!)

The lap time is 66 seconds.....



I've pulled +5g vertical in a stunt plane... it was pretty unpleasant... but -3g vertical was worse.... I can't imagine what 10g lateral would be like....

[hollus]

Your unlimited car seems to need tires and run on an ICE, may I ask why?
By the way, get rid of all that aero and use a rocket nozzle to press it to the ground, no wussy 10G limit...